Service oriented concurrent engineering with hybrid teams using a multi-agent task environment

Abstract

The MDO process of products can be supported by automation of analysis andoptimisation steps. A Design and Engineering Engine (DEE) is a useful concept to structure this automation. To power the automatic analysis an agent based framework has been developed to support human and agent teams. The agent-based framework seeks to integrate the human and computer engineer into a hybrid design and built team, providing engineering services to the product design team. In this perspective four levels of scoping are identified; organisational scoping level, framework or integration level, tool or engineering service level and data scoping level. These four scoping levels are a good frame of reference to link the identified actors, the four main established functions of a framework and the recent contributions in engineering framework development. © 2008 Springer-Verlag London Limited.